Tommy Le has proven himself to be one of the very best pot-limit Omaha tournament players in the world. Le won his seventh career PLO tournament title on Tuesday, emerging victorious in the 2021 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in PLO championship to earn $746,477 and his second gold bracelet. His first win at the series also came in this same event back in 2017.
According to HendonMob, with this latest win Le has surpassed Stephen Chidwick ($2.5 million in earnings) to take the lead on the pot-limit Omaha all-time money list with $3,249,275. Le has 24 cashes counting towards that total, with 15 coming at the WSOP. He has made nine WSOP final tables in PLO events, including his two wins and runner-up finishes in both this year’s $1,500 buy-in PLO event and the 2016 $25,000 buy-in PLO high roller.
Le won’t have to wait long for more high-stakes four-card action, as the 2021 running of the $25,000 buy-in at the WSOP is scheduled to kick off less than 24 hours after his win in this event.
“I’m always confident,” Le told PokerGO about how he feels heading into that high-stakes PLO event. “I’ll play a $600 at the Venetian, and I’ll play a $25K or a $50K at the WSOP. I just love the game. When I play, I’m always confident in my decisions. I try not to second guess myself. Win or lose, I never walk away feeling like I made a mistake or with any regrets. I leave that all out on the felt when I play.”
In addition to the title and the money, Le also earned plenty of rankings points for his latest victory. The 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year points he secured for his second final-table finish of the year were enough to catapult him into 49th place in the 2021 POY race sponsored by Global Poker. He was also awarded 746 PokerGO Tour rankings points, enough to put him within reach of the top 25 on that leaderboard.
The final day of this event began with just five players remaining and Le in the lead. He busted four-time bracelet winner Eli Elezra (6th – $124,508) at the end of the penultimate day of the tournament to extend his advantage. Two-time bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus was the first to fall on day 4.
He got all-in on a K
3
2
flop with K
Q102 for top and bottom pair. He was up against the KKJ2 of Chris Sandrock for top set. Ausmus was in rough shape but could pick up some backdoor possibilities. The 3 on the turn gave Sandrock an unbeatable full house to end the sweat, though, and Ausmus was sent to the rail in fifth place ($168,689).
Four-handed play continued for more than two hours. Eventually, Artem Maskimov fell to the bottom of the chip counts. He got the majority of his stack in preflop with A1093 and found a flop of K54. He got all-in and was up against the A662 of Sandrock. The 6 turn gave Sandrock a set of sixes, which improved to a full house after the K completed the board. Maksimov was eliminated in fourth place, earning $232,236 for his strong showing in this event.
A preflop showdown of big pocket pairs resulted in the next knockout. Jordan Sprulin raised to 700,000 on the button with AA54 and Sandrock three-bet to 1,700,000 from the big blind. Spurlin moved all-in and Sandrock called off his stack of around 3.2 million to put himself at risk. Spurlin flopped top set and improved to aces full on the turn, leaving Sandrock drawing dead with one card remaining. The 2 was a mere formality confirming Sandrock’s third-place finish ($324,800).
Spurlin took a slight lead into heads-up play against Le after winning that preflop clash with aces. Le was able to quickly turn the tables and then extend a lead of his own. Le had built roughly a 6:1 advantage by the time the final hand of the tournament was dealt. Spurlin raised to 720,000 from the button with A1085 and Le called from the big blind with 9652. The flop came down 954 and Le fired enough to put Spurlin all-in. Spurlin called with his middle pair and live cards and was shown Le’s top two pair and gutshot straight draw. The 7 on the turn kept Le ahead, and the 9 on the river improved his hand to a full house. Spurlin was knocked out in second place, earning $461,360 for his runner-up finish.
Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PokerGO |
| 1 | Tommy Le | $746,477 | 1200 | 746 |
| 2 | Jordan Spurlin | $461,360 | 1000 | 461 |
| 3 | Chris Sandrock | $324,800 | 800 | 325 |
| 4 | Artem Maksimov | $232,236 | 600 | 232 |
| 5 | Jeremy Ausmus | $168,689 | 500 | 169 |
| 6 | Eli Elezra | $124,508 | 400 | 125 |
| 7 | Arthur Morris | $93,406 | 300 | 93 |
| 8 | Ashly Butler | $71,242 | 200 | 71 |
Photos credits PokerGO / Antonio Abrego, Enrique Malfavon.
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